


Pulse

by etherimaginary



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 08:19:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7040533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etherimaginary/pseuds/etherimaginary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Look around you, and tell me again that there is nothing to see.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pulse

**Author's Note:**

> We interrupt this hiatus (school's been lit, and not in a good way :/ ) to bring you the Hunhan that I promised (a lil short, I know, but let me live). I know Requiem is sorta Hunhan, but tbh I don't think it's gonna be the Hunhan you guys were looking for. Not to give anything away though :^)  
> I DO plan on finishing requiem, once i get through school and stuff, and I have another one shot planned, probably Chanbaek, and very similar to the Kaisoo fic Break Me, Ruin Me etc.  
> So. That'll be fun.

“Do you see it?”

Sehun looked around the small clearing, a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. “There is nothing to see.” It was a simple part of the forest, no different than any other place they had been to. The grass may have been soft, and the trees gentle in their dance, but it wasn’t special. He looked over at his companion, eyebrows furrowing deeper together. “You don’t even have your eyes open.” 

At his voice, the other didn’t move, and he was thankful for the brief moment of silence that enveloped them. When they were like this, lounging together in the speckled light that poked through the foliage, Sehun could let his eyes wander over his face unchecked. It was a rare luxury, and one he did not take for granted. Luhan did not like to be looked at. It was only when he wasn’t paying attention, or when he let his eyes flutter shut for minutes on end, that Sehun got to openly stare at his dainty features. His hair was spread in a halo around his head, woven between the grass and streaked with hours of sunlight. Gentle breaths fell from rose petal lips; freckles dappled across his cheeks a subtle sort of testimony.

“Do you _feel_ it?” Luhan continued, as if he had never spoken. Sehun sighed. It wasn’t as if he didn’t enjoy spending time out here, lost in the maze of bark and bramble, but when it came to talking, Luhan fell short. He spoke in near silence, preferring the sound of fingers drumming across a fallen log to actual conversation. He would often glance at Sehun with looks he couldn’t quite interpret, perhaps a mixture of longing, disappointment, and hope. Luhan was _waiting_ , and it drove Sehun insane not knowing what for. “Do you-”

“Hear it?” Sehun finished for him, voice hard. “No, I don’t. You _know_ I don’t. I don’t even know what ‘it’ is.”

At last, Luhan opened his eyes, gaze locked on Sehun’s scowl. His face held no contempt, a peaceful mask void of any malice. It was a face that never once been contorted in anger, never once spoken sharp words or hissed threats. The corner of his mouth quirked downward, and he stared at Sehun for what felt like an eternity, the grass fluttering as the weight above it shifted and squirmed in disquiet. His eyes held something that hollowed Sehun; something that made him feel small and empty and _wrong_. They were the deep browns of the trees around them, hazels and blacks and golds mixed into a concoction of colour that Sehun could describe only as _home_. They were as beautiful as they were unnerving, at times.

“ _It_ ,” Luhan began, his voice breathy with wonder. There was a charged silence when he paused, long enough that Sehun wasn’t sure if he would finish his sentence. “ _It_ is life. Look around you, and tell me again that there is nothing to see.”

Sehun opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. All this time, all the empty afternoons and cryptic conversations, and it was simply life that had him so captivated. He sighed, not even bothering to protest. Luhan’s words were a rare enough thing that they he dare not argue them. 

“I see…” He cast his eyes outwards once more, trying and failing to see as Luhan would. Perhaps it was frustration that irked him so, or perhaps it was disappointment, but Sehun allowed a small glare to be sent in Luhan’s direction, trying and failing to keep the contempt from his voice. His mouth twisted, a scoff falling from his mouth. “I see a bunch of trees.”

“Yes, they were here long before us, and will remain long after we have passed.”

Luhan’s words, or perhaps the gentle appraisal held within them, surprised Sehun. He stared at him for a moment before he returned his gaze to the forest, if only to hear the gentle melody of his voice once more. “I see birds.”

“Yes, they will soon say their final goodbyes to their children, and in doing so, secure their own existence in this world even once their bodies have wasted away.”

“I see you.”

Luhan paused, the only answer to Sehun’s statement a soft smile. Without warning he stood, leaves tangled in his hair like ornaments. He didn’t pick them out, not minding their presence nor the gentle swish that sounded as the wind blew them against one another. Sehun struggled to his feet, taking the hand he held out in offering as they strode to the other side of the clearing, the tall grasses tickling their wrists as it brushed by. “Can you hear it?”

Their pace was fast, and Sehun tripped over an exposed tree root as he fought to keep his eyes on him. “I can hear the creek. I can hear the crickets. I can hear the wind, and a squirrel, and the leaves crunching under our feet.”

The smile that graced Luhan’s face made Sehun’s heart stutter in his chest, even though his gaze remained forward. “Yes, and these things are changed by our mere presence, just as much as we are changed by theirs.”

Feeling a sudden coldness at his feet, Sehun looked down to see that he was standing in the shallow bank of the creek; its path winding lazily out of view on either side. He reached down to scoop up some of the water, admiring the way it chilled his palm before tossing it towards a tree nestled beside the bank. The tiny beads of water sparkled in the sunlight as they flew through the air, hitting the bark of the tree with sounds too quiet for him to detect. That didn’t matter though, because the sound was not what he had been looking for. No, had just been searching for mere conformation of Luhan’s words, and he had found it. Droplets fell from the surface of the wood onto the leaf litter below, far more inland then it would ever of been had he not put it there. If not for him, it would have continued on its path down the waterway, into the unforeseeable distance.

Luhan watched him with calculating eyes, the river making gentle wakes around his ankles. His gaze traveled down his arm to where his hand held tightly onto Sehun’s, and he pulled him forward, through the creek and onto the soft soil that encircled the base of an aged timber, its bark worn and tattered. They sank down together in its shadow, palms pressed against ancient wood, and Sehun felt it. He felt it flutter and tense beneath his fingertips, felt the ebb and flow of life pulsing just beneath the stoic surface. Luhan’s eyes sparkled with iridescence in the half shade, what little light that made it through the canopy tinted green by the countless leaves above them. 

“Can you feel it?” Luhan’s voice was but a whisper, his fingers tightening between Sehun’s own subconsciously.

“I think,” Sehun murmured, allowing his eyes to slip closed, “that I am beginning to.”


End file.
